New Adaptation of Flahooley Will Receive Limited New York Run in 2010

By Adam Hetrick
30 Nov 2009

The Harlem Repertory Theatre will give Yip Harburg's short-lived allegorical musical Flahooley an update beginning Jan. 3, 2010, at the Theater for the New City.

Artistic director Keith Lee Grant, who will direct and choreograph, has newly adapted the full-length 1951 musical that will run 90 minutes with no intermission. Performances will begin Dec. 18 and continue through Jan. 3, 2010.

Flahooley has a book by Harburg and Fred Saidy, lyrics by Harburg and music by Sammy Fain.

Harburg's grandson, Ben Harburg, is featured in a cast that also includes Natalia Peguero, Yaritza Pizzaro, Alexandra Bernard, John Wiethorn, Primy Rivera, Daniel Fergus Tamulonis, Eric Myles and Bianca Disarro.

This new incarnation of Flahooley will replace the original use of marionette puppets with Bunraku puppets designed by Daniel Fergus Tamulonis. Three musicians will provide live musical accompaniment.

Flahooley will have musical direction and arrangements by Michael Roth, costume design by Ann-Marie Wright, set design by Mary Myer and lighting design by Brian Aldous. Assistant choreographer is Mabel Gomez.

According to press notes, Flahooley "takes place in the fictional Midwestern city of Capsulanti, USA, where B.G. Bigelow, Inc., an aggressive manufacturing company, bestrides the toy industry like a colossus. An Arabian sheik has arrived to beseech the owner, Mr. Bigelow, for help in repairing a magic lamp, with which the kingdom hopes to revive its oil industry against competition from atomic power and sneak attacks from Communist oppressors. A puppet designer named Sylvester Cloud has created a talking doll called Flahooley, with which Bigelow intends to achieve domination in the toy industry once and for all. Cloud is struggling for money to wed his fiancée, but he is being exploited by the toymaker. Bigelow is struggling to maintain his grip on the market amid a business climate of anti-communist suspicion (even the doll cries 'dirty red, dirty red, dirty red!'). The doll conjures the Genie out of its bottle; the spirit sides with Sylvester against Bigelow and chaos breaks loose."

If the themes of corrupt power, magical characters and American whimsy are familiar, theatregoers need only look uptown to the Broadway revival of Finian's Rainbow, which Harburg, Sady and Burton lane penned in 1947. The creators hoped to capitalize off the Finian's formula, but Flahooley would last only 40 performances. Barbara Cook made her Broadway debut in the original production of Flahooley.

The Yip Harburg foundation has worked with Harlem Repertory Theatre to develop the new production of Flahooley, which was presented in workshops in 2007 and 2008. Grant also directed Finian's Rainbow for Harlem Rep two years ago.

For tickets, priced $18, phone (212) 868-4444 or visit TheaterfortheNewCity. Theater for the New City is located at 155 First Avenue (at East Tenth Street) in Manhattan.